Fixed wireless point-to-point mesh engineered network deployment framework

ABSTRACT

Novel tools and techniques for point-to-point network service provisioning and mesh network transitioning are provided. A system includes a fiber injection node, host mesh network radio, and a first node. The first node may comprise a remote wireless transceiver in communication with the host wireless transceiver, a first mesh network node transceiver configured to communicate with other mesh network node transceivers, a processor, and non-transitory computer readable media comprising instructions executable by the processor. The first node may be configured to establish a point-to-point wireless connection to the host wireless transceiver of the fiber injection node, and provision access to the service provider network to the first customer premises. The first node may further be configured to establish a mesh connection to a secondary mesh network node associated with a second customer premises, and provision access to the service provider network to the second customer premises.

COPYRIGHT STATEMENT

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains materialthat is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has noobjection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent documentor the patent disclosure as it appears in the Patent and TrademarkOffice patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyrightrights whatsoever.

FIELD

The present disclosure relates, in general, to network infrastructuredeployment, and more particularly to a point-to-point mesh engineerednetwork deployment framework.

BACKGROUND

Often, conventional methods of provisioning internet service haverequired traditional internet service providers and other networkcarriers to lay physical infrastructure, such as fiber optic and coppercable, to a customer premises. With the advent of high bandwidthwireless networking capabilities, wireless (e.g., through wirelessaccess points, 5G cellular networks) high speed internet access isincreasingly offered and adopted as an alternative to traditional fiberoptic and/or copper cable communication media. As millimeter wavewireless technology has advanced, higher bandwidth and more reliablewireless network services and applications are increasingly availablewirelessly, for example through 5G cellular communications.

Accordingly, tools and techniques for are provided for wirelesslyprovisioning and transitioning high-speed network services.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A further understanding of the nature and advantages of the embodimentsmay be realized by reference to the remaining portions of thespecification and the drawings, in which like reference numerals areused to refer to similar components. In some instances, a sub-label isassociated with a reference numeral to denote one of multiple similarcomponents. When reference is made to a reference numeral withoutspecification to an existing sub-label, it is intended to refer to allsuch multiple similar components.

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of an example topology forpoint-to-point mesh network deployment, in accordance with variousembodiments;

FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram of a system for point-to-point meshnetwork deployment, in accordance with various embodiments;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of an example deployment of a system forpoint-to-point mesh network deployment, in accordance with variousembodiments;

FIG. 4A is a schematic diagram of an initial deployment of thepoint-to-point mesh network deployment, in accordance with variousembodiments;

FIG. 4B is a schematic diagram of the point-to-point mesh networkinfrastructure deployment to additional subscribers with thepoint-to-point mesh network deployment system and subsequent meshnetwork growth, in accordance with various embodiments;

FIG. 4C is a schematic diagram of a full point-to-point deployment ofmesh network infrastructure to a respective subscriber in each “supercluster,” in accordance with various embodiments;

FIG. 4D is a schematic diagram of an optional network transitioning ofthe point-to-point mesh network deployment, in accordance with variousembodiments;

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of a method for point-to-point mesh networkdeployment, in accordance with various embodiments;

FIG. 6 is a schematic block diagram of a computer system forpoint-to-point mesh network deployment, in accordance with variousembodiments; and

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating a networked system of computingsystems, which may be used in accordance with various embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF CERTAIN EMBODIMENTS

The following detailed description illustrates a few exemplaryembodiments in further detail to enable one of skill in the art topractice such embodiments. The described examples are provided forillustrative purposes and are not intended to limit the scope of theinvention.

In the following description, for the purposes of explanation, numerousspecific details are set forth in order to provide a thoroughunderstanding of the described embodiments. It will be apparent to oneskilled in the art, however, that other embodiments of the present maybe practiced without some of these specific details. In other instances,certain structures and devices are shown in block diagram form. Severalembodiments are described herein, and while various features areascribed to different embodiments, it should be appreciated that thefeatures described with respect to one embodiment may be incorporatedwith other embodiments as well. By the same token, however, no singlefeature or features of any described embodiment should be consideredessential to every embodiment of the invention, as other embodiments ofthe invention may omit such features.

Unless otherwise indicated, all numbers used herein to expressquantities, dimensions, and so forth used should be understood as beingmodified in all instances by the term “about.” In this application, theuse of the singular includes the plural unless specifically statedotherwise, and use of the terms “and” and “or” means “and/or” unlessotherwise indicated. Moreover, the use of the term “including,” as wellas other forms, such as “includes” and “included,” should be considerednon-exclusive. Also, terms such as “element” or “component” encompassboth elements and components comprising one unit and elements andcomponents that comprise more than one unit, unless specifically statedotherwise.

The various embodiments include, without limitation, methods, systems,and/or software products. Merely by way of example, a method mightcomprise one or more procedures, any or all of which are executed by acomputer system. Correspondingly, an embodiment might provide a computersystem configured with instructions to perform one or more procedures inaccordance with methods provided by various other embodiments.Similarly, a computer program might comprise a set of instructions thatare executable by a computer system (and/or a processor therein) toperform such operations. In many cases, such software programs areencoded on physical, tangible, and/or non-transitory computer readablemedia (such as, to name but a few examples, optical media, magneticmedia, and/or the like).

In an aspect, a system for point-to-point network service provisioningand transitioning is provided. The system may include a fiber injectionnode, a host mesh network radio, and a first node. The fiber injectionnode may include a host wireless transceiver and may be coupled to aservice provider network. The host mesh network radio may be coupled tothe service provider network. The first node may be associated with afirst customer premises, and may further include a remote wirelesstransceiver in communication with the host wireless transceiver. Thefirst node may include a first mesh network node transceiver configuredto communicate with other mesh network node transceivers. The first nodemay further include a processor, and non-transitory computer readablemedia comprising instructions executable by the processor to establish,via the remote wireless transceiver, a point-to-point wirelessconnection to the host wireless transceiver of the fiber injection node.The instructions may further be executable to provision, via thepoint-to-point wireless connection, access to the service providernetwork to the first customer premises. The processor may furtherexecute the instructions to establish, via the first mesh network nodetransceiver, a mesh connection to a secondary mesh network nodeassociated with a second customer premises, and provision, via the meshconnection, access to the service provider network to the secondcustomer premises. Thus, the first node may further be configured toreceive, via the mesh connection, a first data from the second customerpremises, and transmit, via the point-to-point wireless connection, thefirst data from the second customer premises to the service providernetwork.

In another aspect, an apparatus for point-to-point network serviceprovisioning and transitioning is provided. The apparatus may include aremote wireless transceiver, a mesh network node transceiver configuredto communicate with other mesh network node transceivers, a processor,and non-transitory computer readable media comprising instructionsexecutable by the processor. The instructions may be executed by theprocessor to establish, via the remote wireless transceiver, apoint-to-point wireless connection to a host wireless transceiver incommunication with a service provider network, and provision, via thepoint-to-point wireless connection, access to the service providernetwork to a first customer premises. The processor may further executethe instructions to establish, via the first mesh network nodetransceiver, a mesh connection to a secondary mesh network nodeassociated with a second customer premises, and provision, via the meshconnection, access to the service provider network to the secondcustomer premises. The apparatus may, thus, be configured to receive,via the mesh connection, a first data from the second customer premises,and transmit, via the point-to-point wireless connection, the first datafrom the second customer premises to the service provider network.

In a further aspect, a method for point-to-point network serviceprovisioning and transitioning is provided. The method includesestablishing, via a remote wireless transceiver, a point-to-pointwireless connection to a host wireless transceiver of a fiber injectionnode coupled to a service provider network, and provisioning, via thepoint-to-point wireless connection, access to the service providernetwork to a first customer premises. The method continues byestablishing, via a first mesh network node transceiver, a meshconnection to a secondary mesh network node associated with a secondcustomer premises, and provisioning, via the mesh connection, access tothe service provider network to the second customer premises. The methodmay further include receiving, via the mesh connection, a first datafrom the second customer premises, and transmitting, via thepoint-to-point wireless connection, the first data from the secondcustomer premises to the service provider network.

Various modifications and additions can be made to the embodimentsdiscussed without departing from the scope of the invention. Forexample, while the embodiments described above refer to specificfeatures, the scope of this invention also includes embodiments havingdifferent combination of features and embodiments that do not includeall the above described features.

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of an example topology of a system100 for point-to-point mesh network deployment, in accordance withvarious embodiments. The system 100 includes a first dual node 105 a, asecond dual node 105 b, a primary mesh node 105 c, one or more secondarymesh nodes 110 a-110 c, a tertiary CPE node 115, a fiber injection node120, a host mesh node 125, and a fiber network 130. It should be notedthat the various components of the system 100 are schematicallyillustrated in FIG. 1, and that modifications to the system 100 may bepossible in accordance with various embodiments.

In various embodiments, the first dual node 105 a may be coupled to afiber network 130 via a fiber injection node 120. The first dual node105 a may further be coupled to the second dual node 105 b, primary meshnode 105 c, a first secondary mesh node 110 a. In some embodiments, thefirst dual node 105 a may further be coupled to the host mesh node 125.In some further embodiments, the second secondary mesh node 110 b and/orthird secondary mesh node 110 c may also be coupled to the first dualnode 105 a. Similarly, each of the first secondary mesh node 110 a andsecond secondary mesh node 110 b may be coupled to the second dual node105 b. Each of the first secondary mesh node 110 a and third secondarymesh node 110 c may be coupled to the primary mesh node 105 c. In somefurther embodiments, a tertiary CPE node 115 may be coupled to one ofthe secondary mesh nodes 110 a-110 c. The primary mesh node 105 c may becoupled to the host mesh node 125, which may in turn be coupled to thefiber network 130.

In various embodiments, the first dual node 105 a may be a networkinterface device, gateway device, or a combination of different devices.The first dual node 105 a may be configured to couple a customerpremises to a service provider network, such as fiber network 130. Invarious embodiments, the dual nodes, such as the first dual node 105 aand second dual node 105 b, may include two or more types of wirelesstransceivers. For example, in some embodiments, each of the dual nodes105 a-105 c may include a respective point-to-point radio, and arespective mesh radio.

The point-to-point radio may include, for example, a transmitter,receiver, and/or transceiver. The point-to-point radio may furtherinclude an antenna, driver circuits, modulators, demodulators, modems,mixers, and other components as known to those in the art, to enablepoint-to-point radio communications. Point-to-point radio communicationsmay include suitable wireless communication standards and/or protocols.For example, in some embodiments, point-to-point radio communicationsmay include, without limitation, millimeter wave wirelesscommunications, technologies such as 5G cellular communications and802.11ad, 10-gig point-to-point wireless communications, laser-basedline of sight communications, and other high-speed/high-bandwidthwireless communication standards and protocols (such as 802.11ac,802.11ax, and any other suitable standards defined under the IEEE 802.11suite of protocols). Although described as point-to-pointcommunications, it is to be understood that in some embodiments, thepoint-to-point radio may include point-to-multipoint communications, inwhich a respective channel may be established for each point-to-pointconnection. Accordingly, in various embodiments, the dual nodes 105 a,150 b may serve as remote antennas configured to establish apoint-to-point wireless backhaul connection with, for example, the fiberinjection node 120.

In various embodiments, the dual nodes 105 a, 105 b may each furtherinclude a respective mesh radio. The mesh radio, like the point-to-pointradio, may similarly include, for example, a transmitter, receiver,and/or transceiver. The transmitter, receiver, and/or transceiver mayfurther include an antenna, driver circuits, modulators, demodulators,modems, mixers, and other components as known to those in the art, toenable mesh Wi-Fi and/or mesh wireless radio frequency (RF)communications, including without limitation, microwave and/ormillimeter wave communications. Accordingly, the mesh radio may beconfigured to enable mesh Wi-Fi communications with other mesh radios(e.g., mesh nodes), as known to those in the art, and over one or moremesh radio bands. In some further embodiments, the mesh radio may be apoint-to-point radio (including point-to-multipoint radios), comprisingone or more wireless transceivers configured to support point-to-pointand/or point-to-multipoint communications with one or more secondarymesh nodes 110 a-110 c, and/or one or more tertiary CPE nodes 115. Thus,in some embodiments, mesh connections between the dual node 105 a andone or more other mesh nodes may include one or more respectivepoint-to-point wireless connections to one or more secondary mesh nodes110 a-110 c and/or one or more tertiary CPE nodes 115. Accordingly, themesh connections may include various types of mesh connections,including, without limitation, line of sight (LOS), non-line of sight(nLOS), and near LOS connections.

In various embodiments, the first and second dual nodes 105 a, 150 b,may further include physical transceivers for converting signals fromone communication medium (e.g., point-to-point radio/mesh radio) to awired medium, such as twisted pair cable, optical fiber, powerlinecommunications (PLC) via appropriate chipsets, line drivers, and linetransceivers, and/or to convert between different wireless communicationmedia, such as between point-to-point wireless communications and meshWi-Fi, or, for example, between the point-to-point wireless backhaulconnection to a different point-to-point wireless channels used by arespective mesh network. It is to be understood that although the dualnodes 105 a, 105 b are described as including a point-to-point radiotransceiver and a mesh radio transceiver, in other embodiments, othertypes of wireless and physical line transceivers may be utilized.

Accordingly, in various embodiments, the first and second dual nodes 105a, 105 b may be configured to establish a backhaul connection to thefiber injection node 120. For example, the respective point-to-pointradios of the dual nodes 105 a, 105 b may be configured to establish apoint-to-point wireless backhaul connection to the fiber injection node120, and through which traffic may be backhauled, for example, via afiber optic backhaul, to the fiber network 130. Thus, the dual nodes 105a, 105 b may be configured to backhaul traffic from a respectivecustomer/customer premises associated with the dual node 105 a, 105 b,and/or from one or more other subscribers, such as respective customersassociated with each of the one or more secondary mesh nodes 110 a-110c, and/or a tertiary CPE node 115. For example, each of the dual nodes105 a, 105 b may be associated with a respective customer and/orcustomer premises. Traffic to and from the associated customer and/orcustomer premises may be transmitted to and from the fiber network 130via the point-to-point wireless connection to the fiber injection node120.

In various embodiments, the dual nodes 105 a, 105 b may further becoupled to the one or more secondary mesh nodes 110 a-110 c via arespective mesh wireless connection as described above. In variousembodiments, each of the secondary mesh nodes 110 a-110 c may beassociated with a respective customer and/or customer premises.Accordingly, each of the secondary mesh nodes 110 a-110 b may include arespective mesh radio transceiver configured to establish a meshwireless connection to one or more of the dual nodes 105 a, 105 b. Insome embodiments, the mesh wireless connections may include one or moremesh wireless connections. In some embodiments, mesh wirelessconnections may include microwave and/or millimeter wave communications,such as, without limitation, communication protocols defined under IEEE802.11ac, IEEE 802.11ad, IEEE 802.11 ax, and/or any other suitable802.11xx protocols, and or one or more respective point-to-point meshconnections, as previously described.

Thus, traffic to and from each of the secondary mesh nodes 110 a-110 cmay be transmitted to the fiber network 130 via one or more respectivedual nodes 105 a, 105 b. Accordingly, traffic to and from each of thesecondary mesh nodes 110 a-110 c may further be transmitted, via thepoint-to-point wireless connection from the respective dual node 105 a,105 b to the fiber injection node 120. Thus, the point-to-pointconnection may be a high-speed/high bandwidth backhaul connection, suchas, without limitation, a 10 gbps point-to-point wireless connection.Accordingly, in various embodiments, one or more of the fiber injectionnode 120, dual node 105 a, 105 b, and/or the respective secondary meshnodes 110 a-110 c may include VLAN controllers and other suitableequipment, and be configured to appropriately direct traffic to and fromeach of the respective secondary mesh nodes. For example, trafficassociated with the first secondary mesh node 110 a may be received atthe first dual node 105 a over the point-to-point wireless connection.The first dual node 105 a, accordingly, may be configured to direct VLANtraffic associated with the first secondary mesh node 110 a to thesecondary mesh node 110 c by first converting the traffic, viaappropriate physical line transceivers, to be transmitted via the meshradio, to the first secondary mesh node 110 a. In other embodiments, thefirst secondary mesh node 110 a may, instead, be configured to determinetraffic to and from an associated VLAN domain.

Similarly, the fiber injection node 120 may be configured to determineone or more VLAN domains associated with a respective dual node 105 a,105 b, and a respective set of secondary mesh nodes 110 a-110 cassociated with each dual node 105 a, 105 b. Thus, traffic to and fromthe respective VLAN domains may be transmitted to and from theappropriate dual node 105 a, 105 b. Thus, respective customer domainsmay be separated using VLAN controllers, which may be located at thefiber injection node 120, dual node 105 a, 105 b, and/or secondary meshnodes 110 a-110 c.

Although three secondary mesh nodes 110 a-110 c are depicted anddescribed for purposes of explanation, it is to be understood that inother embodiments, more or less secondary mesh nodes may be supported bythe system 100, and by each individual dual node 105 a, 105 b. Moreover,in further embodiments, each of the secondary mesh nodes 110 a-110 c maybe coupled to one or more respective tertiary CPE node 115. Thus, thetertiary CPE node 115 may communicate with the fiber network 130 throughrespective secondary mesh nodes 110 a-110 c, which are in turn coupledto a respective dual node 105 a, 105 b, which is then coupled to thefiber injection node 120 via the point-to-point wireless connection.

In various embodiments, the fiber injection node 120 may include apoint-to-point wireless transceiver as described above, with respect thedual nodes 105 a, 105 b. In various embodiments, the fiber injectionnode 120 may be coupled to the fiber network 130 via residentialdevelopments, neighborhoods, and/or municipalities may be divided intogeographic groupings of households (e.g., unique customer premises). Insome embodiments, the group of households may be referred to as acluster. For example, in one embodiment, a cluster may be defined as agrouping of 32 households. When a new customer requests service, it maybe determined whether any other customers are in the associated clusteras the new customer. If it is determined that no other customers arepresent in the cluster, the fiber injection node 120 may be configuredto establish a point-to-point wireless connection to the customerrequesting the service. Accordingly, in various embodiments, the firstnew customer requesting service in a respective cluster may be providedwith a dual node 105 a, 105 b (e.g., both a point-to-point wirelesstransceiver and a mesh radio transceiver) by an Internet serviceprovider to receive service. Thereafter, the fiber injection node 120may be configured to establish a point-to-point wireless connection tothe dual node 105 a, 105 b. Accordingly, in some examples, only a singlerespective dual node 105 a, 105 b may be provided for each cluster.

If it is determined that the customer requesting service is not thefirst customer of a given cluster, the customer requesting service maybe authorized to receive network services via an existing respectivedual node 105 a, 105 b of the cluster associated with the requestingcustomer. For example, in some embodiments, the customer requestingservice (e.g., a subsequent customer) may be a secondary mesh node 110a-110 c, which may establish a mesh Wi-Fi connection to a respectiveexisting dual node 105 a, 105 b. Accordingly, in some embodiments, thesecondary mesh node 110 a-110 c may be configured to establish a meshwireless connection to the dual node 105 a, 105 b. The secondary meshnode 110 a-110 c may include, for example, a wireless router, wirelessaccess point, wireless modem, or other customer premises equipmentassociated with the subsequent customer requesting service. Thesecondary mesh node 110 a-110 c may further be configured toauthenticate itself to receive services from the dual node 105 a, 105 band/or fiber injection node 120. For example, in some embodiments, thesubsequent customer requesting service may be able to authenticatethemselves via a respective portal or webpage. In yet furtherembodiments, authentication and authorization to provision services to anew customer, whether at the dual node 105 a, 105 b or secondary meshnode 110 a-110 c may occur at an associated digital subscriber lineaccess multiplexer (DSLAM), optical line termination (OLT), centraloffice, or an authentication server accessible via a wide area network(WAN) and/or the Internet.

In yet further embodiments, a super cluster may be defined as a group ofclusters. For example, a super cluster may include 4 clusters each. Insome embodiments, in contrast with the examples above, rather thanproviding the first customer of each customer with a dual node 105 a,105 b, the first customer of each super cluster may be provided with arespective dual node 105 a, 105 b. If it is determined that a newcustomer requesting service is the first customer in its respectivecluster, but not the first customer in its associated super cluster, ahigh-speed mesh network connection may be established with therespective dual node 105 a, 105 b of the corresponding super cluster.Accordingly, in some embodiments, each dual node 105 a, 105 b may beassociated with the first customer in a given super cluster, and eachsecondary mesh node 110 a-110 c may be associated with a correspondingfirst customer of a respective cluster of a super cluster subsequent tothe first customer of the super cluster. Each secondary mesh node 110a-110 c, in turn, may support one or more tertiary CPE nodes 115associated with subsequent customers within the same cluster. In someembodiments, subsequent customers in the same cluster as the respectivedual node 105 a, 105 b may also be tertiary nodes 115. Tertiary nodes115 may be coupled to respective secondary mesh nodes 110 a-110 b and/ordual nodes 105 a, 105 b, via short-range customer premises equipment(CPE) mesh network connections.

Accordingly, in various embodiments, the point-to-point wirelessconnection from the fiber injection node 120 to a respective dual node105 a, 105 b may be a long-range point-to-point connection. For example,in some embodiments, this may include a focused, narrow-beam wirelessbackhaul connection, as previously described. In some embodiments, thepoint-to-point connection may be configured to support bandwidths of 10gbps. Connections between the dual node 105 a, 105 b to each of thesecondary mesh nodes 110 a-110 c may include short-range mesh networkconnections as previously described, including mesh Wi-Fi and/orpoint-to-point (e.g., point-to-multipoint) mesh network connections. Insome embodiments, the short-range mesh network connections to thesecondary may node may be configured to support bandwidths of 2.5 gbps,serving as part of the backhaul connection to a respective dual node 105a, 105 b. Each of the short-range CPE mesh network connections to one ormore respective tertiary nodes 115 may, in turn, be mesh Wi-Fi and/ormesh wireless RF connections, as known to those in the art. In someembodiments, the CPE mesh network connections to respective tertiary CPEnodes 115 may be configured to support bandwidths of 1.5 gbps.

In various embodiments, once a critical mass of households has beenprovisioned, the system 100 may become self-supportive via mesh networkconnections. Once the critical mass has been reached, the fiberinjection node 120 may, in some examples, be removed and redeployed to adifferent service area. Thus, in some embodiments, dual nodes 105 a, 105b may be converted to primary mesh nodes, such as primary mesh node 105c. In some embodiments, the point-to-point wireless transceivers at thedual nodes 105 a, 105 b may also be taken down and relocated to a newservice area, along with the fiber injection node. Accordingly, invarious embodiments, critical mass may be reached when the mesh networksand 2.5 gigabit mesh network links between the dual nodes 105 a, 105 b,primary mesh nodes 105 c, and secondary mesh nodes 110 a-110 c becomeself-supportive. In further embodiments, the system may include, inplace of the fiber injection node 120, a host mesh node 125. The hostmesh node 125 may be installed or otherwise provided by an internetservice provider when critical mass has been reached, or in anticipationof critical mass being reached for a given service area. The host meshnode 125, accordingly, may be configured to couple each of the primarymesh nodes 105 c (including converted dual nodes 105 a, 105 b) to thefiber network 130. The host mesh node 125 may include a mesh radiotransceiver and be configured to establishing a mesh network backhaulconnection, from one or more primary mesh nodes 105 a-105 c to the fibernetwork 130, to which the host mesh node 125 may be coupled via anoptical transceiver. Accordingly, once the mesh network becomesself-supporting in the corresponding service area, network paths may beestablished from each of the tertiary nodes, through respectivesecondary mesh nodes 110 a-110 c and primary mesh nodes 105 a-105 c, tothe fiber network 130. In yet further embodiments, mesh networkconnections may be established between primary mesh nodes 105 a-105 c,between one or more secondary mesh nodes 110 a-110 c, and between one ormore of the tertiary CPE nodes 115. Accordingly, in the event thatcustomers choose to leave the service provider or equipment failure atone or more of the mesh network nodes, alternative paths may beestablished to allow any one customer to continue receiving service, andadditionally the mesh network is configured to not rely on any singlecustomer for connectivity to the fiber network 130 (e.g., via the hostmesh node 125). In this way, in various embodiments, once a criticalmass of subscribers has been reached, each of the primary mesh nodes(including dual node) 105 a-105 c, secondary mesh nodes 110 a-110 c, andtertiary CPE nodes 115 may comprise, without limitation, aself-organizing mesh wireless network configured to establish a meshwireless backhaul connection to the host mesh node 125.

Several of the techniques described above, can be implemented using thesystem 200 illustrated by FIG. 2. It should be noted, however, that thissystem 200 can operate differently in other embodiments (includingwithout limitation those described herein) and in other embodiments, asystem different from that depicted by FIG. 2 may be utilized. FIG. 2 isa block diagram of one example of a system 200 for point-to-pointnetwork mesh deployment, in accordance with various embodiments. Thesystem 200 includes dual node 205, wireless transceiver 210, mesh radiotransceiver 215, fiber injection node 220, wireless transceiver 225,optical transceiver 230, fiber network 235, host mesh node 240, opticaltransceiver 245, mesh radio transceiver 250, primary mesh node 255, oneor more remote mesh nodes 260, and remote mesh nodes 265, 270. It shouldbe noted that the various components of the system 200 are schematicallyillustrated in FIG. 2, and that modifications to the system 200 may bepossible in accordance with various embodiments.

In various embodiments, the dual node 205 may include a wirelesstransceiver 210 and a mesh radio transceiver 215. The fiber injectionnode 220 includes a wireless transceiver 225 and an optical transceiver230. The host mesh node 240 may include an optical transceiver 245 and amesh radio transceiver 250. Each of the primary mesh node 255, one ormore remote mesh nodes 260, 265, and remote CPE nodes 270 may eachinclude respective mesh radio transceivers (not shown). In variousembodiments, the dual node 205 may be coupled to the fiber injectionnode 220. The fiber injection node 220 may, in turn, be coupled to fibernetwork 235. The dual node 205 may further be coupled to one or moremesh nodes, such as remote mesh node 265. The dual node 205 may furtherbe coupled to the primary mesh node 255. The remote mesh node 265 mayfurther be coupled to one or more other mesh nodes, such as remote CPEnode 270. The dual node 205 may further be coupled to the host mesh node240 directly, or in some embodiments, coupled to the host mesh node 240via the primary mesh node 255. The primary mesh node 255 may be coupledto the host mesh node 240, and further to one or more remote mesh nodes260.

As previously described with respect to FIG. 1, the dual node 205 may beconfigured to establish a point-to-point wireless connection to thefiber injection node 220. In various embodiments, the point-to-pointwireless connection may be established between the wireless transceiver210 of the dual node 205 and wireless transceiver 225 of the fiberinjection node 220. The dual node 205 may further be configured toestablish mesh wireless connections to one or more mesh network nodes,such as primary mesh node 255, and remote mesh node 265. Accordingly,the dual node 205 may be configured to establish mesh wirelessconnections via the mesh radio transceiver 215, to the primary mesh node255 and/or remote mesh node 265. It is to be understood that althoughonly a single remote mesh node 265 is depicted, in other embodiments,the dual node 205 may be configured to be coupled to one or more remotemesh nodes 265. In relation to FIG. 1, the remote mesh node 265 maycorrespond to tertiary CPE nodes (e.g., subsequent customers within thesame cluster as the dual node 205). In some embodiments, the remote meshnode 265 may further be coupled to remote CPE node 270 via a meshwireless connection. In various embodiments, connections to the remotemesh node 265 from the dual node 205, and mesh wireless connectionsbetween remote mesh nodes, such as remote mesh node 265 and remote CPEnode 270 may correspond to the CPE mesh network connections (e.g., CPEnode 270 acting as a wireless access point for the respectivelyassociated customer premises).

In various embodiments, the dual node 205 may further be coupled to aprimary mesh node 255. In some embodiments, the primary mesh node 255may be a dual node that is subsequently converted to become a primarymesh node 255. In other embodiments, the primary mesh node 255 maycorrespond to the secondary mesh nodes 110 a-110 c of FIG. 1, in whichthe primary mesh node 255 is associated with the first customer in agiven cluster, but within the same super cluster as the dual node 205.Accordingly, the mesh wireless connection to the primary mesh node 255may include, for example, and without limitation, a high-speed meshwireless connection (e.g., a 2.5 gbps mesh wireless connection). Theprimary mesh node 255 may further be coupled to one or more remote meshnodes 260.

In various embodiments, the primary mesh node 255 may further beconfigured to establish a mesh network connection to the host mesh node240. Accordingly, the mesh radio transceiver 250 of the host mesh node240 may be communicatively coupled to the primary mesh node 255. Themesh wireless connection to the primary mesh node 255 may be configuredas a backhaul connection to the fiber network 235, carrying trafficfrom, for example, the one or more remote mesh nodes 260, as well ascustomer traffic from a customer associated with the primary mesh node255. Accordingly, the host mesh node 240 may further be configured totransmit traffic from various mesh nodes coupled to the host mesh node240, to the fiber network 235 via the optical transceiver 245. In someembodiments, the optical transceiver 245 may include one or more ofoptical line drivers, mixers, cross connects, splitters, etc. configuredto communicate with the fiber network 235.

In further embodiments, the host mesh node 240 may be coupled to meshnode 205, similar to the primary mesh node 255. Accordingly, the meshradio transceiver 250 of the host mesh node 240 may be communicativelycoupled to the mesh radio transceiver 215 of the dual node 205.Alternatively, the dual node 205 may, in some embodiments, be coupled tothe host mesh node 240 via the primary mesh node 255.

Accordingly, in various embodiments, the fiber injection node 220 may beconfigured to transmit traffic to and from the fiber network 235 via theoptical transceiver 230 and to transmit traffic to and from apoint-to-point wireless connection via the wireless transceiver 225.Traffic handled by the fiber injection node 220 may include traffic onmultiple VLANs, one or more VLANs being associated with a respectivecustomer (e.g., mesh node 255-265, remote CPE node 270, and/or dual node205). Similarly, the primary mesh node 240 may transmit traffic to andfrom the fiber network 235 via the optical transceiver 245, and trafficto and from a mesh wireless connection via the mesh radio transceiver250. Similarly, the host mesh node 240 may be configured to handletraffic for multiple VLANs and multiple mesh nodes. Thus, the fiberinjection node 220 and the primary mesh node 240 may be configured toconvert traffic received over a wireless connection (e.g., from thepoint-to-point wireless transceiver 215 and/or mesh radio transceiver250, respectively) to be transmitted over a fiber optic network, such asfiber network 235, and vice versa, from the fiber network 235 to arespective wireless connection.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of an example deployment of a system 300for point-to-point mesh network deployment, in accordance with variousembodiments. The system 300 includes one or more super clusters 305a-3305 i, each super cluster comprising one or more mesh clusters, suchas mesh clusters 310 a-310 d of super cluster 305 c, one or more meshclusters 315 a-315 c of super cluster 305 g, one or more mesh clusters320 a-320 b of super cluster 305 h, and mesh clusters 325 a-325 b ofmesh cluster 305 i. The system 300 further includes fiber injection node330, host mesh node 335, and network 340. It should be noted that thearrangement and topology of the system 300 are schematically illustratedin FIG. 3, and that modifications to the system 300 may be possible inaccordance with various embodiments.

In various embodiments, each of the one or more super clusters 305 a-305i may include one or more mesh clusters. For example, super cluster 305c may include four mesh clusters 310 a-310 c. Each of the mesh clusters310 a-310 c may further comprise one or more customers and/or customerpremises. Some super clusters, such as super clusters 305 g-305 i, mayinclude fewer or more mesh clusters. For example, super cluster 305 gmay include three mesh clusters 315 a-315 c, and super clusters 305 h,305 i may include two mesh clusters respectively, mesh clusters 320 a,320 b, and mesh clusters 325 a, 325 b. Accordingly, in variousembodiments, the one or more super clusters 305 a-305 i, andcorresponding mesh clusters may be drawn geographically to divide agiven service area. Thus, in some embodiments, the service area may bedivided in mesh clusters based on a number of customers and/or customerpremises (also referred to as households). Super clusters 305 a-305 imay then be defined as a grouping of 4 mesh clusters. In otherembodiments, a mesh cluster may be defined to cover a distance or rangeof distances. For example, a mesh cluster may correspond to a maximumdistance of 500 ft. In further embodiments, the mesh cluster may bedefined to cover a minimum and/or maximum number of customers with amaximum range of 500 ft between any two customers within the meshcluster. It is to be understood that in other embodiments, othercombinations of ranges and number of customers may be utilized.

As previously described with respect to FIGS. 1 & 2, in variousembodiments, the fiber injection node 330 may be coupled to a network340. The network 340 may include, for example, a fiber optic network,such as a passive optical network (PON), or other service provideraccess networks, a WAN and/or the Internet, or other remote networks.Accordingly, in various embodiments, the fiber injection node 330 mayinclude one or more transceivers configured to communicatively couplethe fiber injection node 330 to the network 340. The fiber injectionnode 330 may further be configured to provision internet service tocustomers in the service area. Accordingly, in various embodiments, thefiber injection node 330 may be configured to establish one or morepoint-to-point wireless connections respectively with each super cluster305 a-305 i.

As previously described, the fiber injection node 330 may be configuredto establish, via a point-to-point radio transceiver, a point-to-pointwireless connection to a subscriber (e.g., customer) in each of thesuper clusters 305 a-305 i. In some embodiments, for example, a dualnode may be associated with each first customer of each respective supercluster 305 a-305 i. Accordingly, each super cluster 305 a-305 i may becoupled to the fiber injection node 330. In various embodiments, theinitial point-to-point wireless connection to a respective dual node ofeach of the super clusters 305 a-305 i may provide a respective backhaulconnection to the network 350 for each customer in the super clusters305 a-305 i. For example, traffic to and from subsequent subscribers ineach of the respective super clusters 305 a-305 i may be transmitted tothe fiber injection node. Thus, each of the super cluster 305 a-305 imay be provisioned with internet service via the point-to-point wirelessconnection between a respective dual node and the fiber injection node330.

In various embodiments, the dual node may further be configured toprovision subsequent subscribers within a respective super cluster 305a-305 i. For example, as previously described, the dual node may beconfigured to provision subsequent customers in the same mesh cluster asthe dual node, as well as other mesh clusters within the same supercluster. For example, if a dual node is located at the first meshcluster 310 a of super cluster 305 c, the dual node may be configured toestablish a mesh connection to a secondary mesh node associated with thefirst customer in a different mesh cluster, such as each of meshclusters 310 b-310 d. The connection between the secondary mesh node andthe dual node itself may form part of the backhaul connection to thefiber injection node 330. For example, the secondary node of meshcluster 310 b may be configured to transmit traffic to and from asubsequent subscriber within the same mesh cluster 310 b. Thus, trafficfrom a tertiary CPE node (e.g., subsequent customer) may be transmitted,via the secondary mesh node, to the dual node, which then may be carriedover the point-to-point wireless backhaul connection to the fiberinjection node 330. Accordingly, the secondary mesh node may further beconfigured to establish one or more respective mesh wireless connectionsto one or more tertiary CPE nodes.

In various embodiments, as described with respect to FIGS. 1 & 2, Invarious embodiments, once a critical mass of households has beenprovisioned, the system 300 may become self-supportive via mesh networkconnections. Once the critical mass has been reached, the fiberinjection node 330 may be removed and redeployed to a different servicearea, while a host mesh node 335 takes its place. Dual nodes lay beconverted to primary mesh nodes, through which various secondary meshnodes and/or tertiary CPE nodes may be coupled to the host mesh node viaa mesh wireless backhaul connection.

Accordingly, in various embodiments, critical mass may be reached whenthe mesh network established between the various mesh nodes of theservice area becomes self-supportive. In various embodiments, once aself-supportive mesh network has been established, the system 300 maytransition from connecting to the network 340 via the fiber injectionnode 330 to establishing a mesh wireless backhaul connection to the hostmesh node 335. In various embodiments, the host mesh node 335 may beconfigured to support one or more backhaul connections to support thenumber of subscribers in the service area at a given time. For example,in some embodiments, it may be determined, for example at the host meshnode 335, to establish an additional mesh wireless backhaul connectionto support the addition of one or more new subscribers. Alternatively,the host mesh node 335 may, in some examples, determine to migrate oneor more subscribers to a different backhaul mesh wireless connection.

The host mesh node 335 may be installed or otherwise provided by aninternet service provider when critical mass has been reached, or inanticipation of critical mass being reached for a given service area.The host mesh node 335, accordingly, may be configured to couple each ofthe primary mesh nodes to the fiber network 340 via an opticaltransceiver. Thus, once a critical mass of subscribers has been reached,each of the primary mesh nodes (including dual node), secondary meshnodes, and tertiary CPE nodes may comprise, without limitation, aself-organizing mesh wireless network configured to establish one ormore mesh wireless backhaul connection to the host mesh node 335.

In some examples, critical mass may be reached when a dual node has beenestablished in each super cluster 305 a-305 c. In some examples,critical mass may be determined to have been reached when 40% ofpotential customers in each mesh cluster of each super cluster 305 a-305c has been provisioned with network services. It is to be understoodthat in other embodiments, different algorithms may be utilized todetermine whether a critical mass of subscribers has been reached for agiven service area.

FIG. 4A is a schematic diagram of an initial deployment of thepoint-to-point system 400A provisioning a first subscriber andsubsequent mesh network growth, in accordance with various embodiments.For example, the system 400A at initial deployment may include a servicearea, a first super cluster 425, one or more mesh clusters 420 a-420 c,dual node 405, one or more secondary mesh nodes 410 a-410 b, andtertiary CPE node 415 a.

In various embodiments, a fiber injection node 430 may be deployed to aservice area. The service area may, in some examples, lack pre-existingpre-built physical network infrastructure as is conventional. Thus, whena request for service is received or it is otherwise determined toprovide service to a service area, a fiber injection node 430 may thenbe deployed. In some embodiments, deploying the fiber injection node 430may further include deploying and/or laying a fiber optic backhaul cableand/or network to service the service area. The fiber injection node 430may then be coupled to the fiber optic backhaul. The fiber injectionnode 430, for example, may include an aggregator and/or multiplexer,such as a digital subscriber line access multiplexer (DSLAM), opticalline termination (OLT), crossovers, switches, hubs, and/or other networkaggregator devices.

The first super cluster 425 to be provisioned may include a first meshcluster 420 a, second mesh cluster 420 b, and third mesh cluster 420 c.A first customer requesting service may be provided with the dual node405. Accordingly, the fiber injection node 430 may be coupled to thedual node 405. In various embodiments, the fiber injection node 430 maybe configured to establish a point-to-point wireless connection, aspreviously described, to the dual node 405. In some examples, thepoint-to-point wireless connection may include, without limitation, aline-of-sight, narrow beam, high-bandwidth backhaul connection to thedual node 405. Secondary mesh nodes 410 a-410 b may be associated withsubsequent customers requesting service within the same super cluster425, but belonging to other mesh clusters 420 a, 420 c than the meshcluster 420 b of the dual node 405. Accordingly, in various embodiments,the first customer to request service within a mesh cluster, butsubsequent to the dual node 405, may be associated with a secondary meshnode 410 a, 410 b. In various embodiments, each respective secondarymesh node 410 a, 410 b may be coupled to the dual node 405, via whichtraffic may be transmitted to and from the fiber injection node 430. Insome embodiments, as previously described, the dual node 405 may beconfigured to establish a mesh wireless backhaul connection to each ofthe secondary mesh nodes 410 a, 410 b.

Subsequent customers in each respective mesh cluster 420 a, 420 c maythen be provisioned with network services via respective secondary meshnodes 410 a, 410 b. For example, the tertiary CPE node 415 a may becoupled to the secondary mesh node 410 a. Accordingly, the secondarymesh node 410 a may be configured to establish a mesh wirelessconnection to the tertiary CPE node 415 a. The mesh wireless connectionto the tertiary CPE node 415 a may, as previously described, include aCPE mesh network connection. In some embodiments, the CPE mesh networkconnection may be configured to support one or more customers' networkservices. Accordingly, for single customers, the CPE mesh networkconnection may be provisioned to have a speed and/or bandwidth tosupport the single customer's network services. In other embodiments,the tertiary CPE node 415 a may further support other tertiary nodes. Insuch arrangements, the CPE mesh network connection to the secondary meshnode 410 a may be configured to support the provisioning of networkservices for the one or more additional customers coupled to thetertiary CPE node 415 a.

Accordingly, in the various embodiments illustrated in FIGS. 4A-4D, thepoint-to-point wireless connections to the fiber injection node aredepicted as an alternating long-short dashed line. The mesh wirelessbackhaul connections are depicted as dash-dot lines, and CPE meshnetwork connections to individual subscribers (e.g., tertiary CPE nodes)are depicted as a dotted line.

FIG. 4B is a schematic diagram of the point-to-point system 400Bprovisioning additional subscribers with point-to-point infrastructureand subsequent mesh network growth, in accordance with variousembodiments. As depicted in FIG. 4B, the system 400B now includesadditional subscribers in additional super clusters. For example, thesystem 400B may include additional dual nodes 445, 460. The dual node445 may be configured to establish a point-to-point wireless backhaulconnection to the fiber injection node 430, and to be coupled tocustomers within the same mesh cluster via a CPE mesh networkconnection. For example, mesh nodes 455 a, 455 b may be coupled to thedual node via a CPE mesh network connection. Accordingly, subsequentcustomers within the same mesh cluster as the dual node may beprovisioned with service via the dual node 445, and over a CPE meshnetwork connection.

Similarly, dual node 460 may provision internet service to customers inthe respective super cluster. In various embodiments, the dual node 460may be configured to establish a point-to-point wireless backhaulconnection to the fiber injection node 430. The dual node 460 mayfurther be configured to establish a mesh wireless backhaul connectionto each of the secondary mesh nodes 465 a-465 c. For example, the dualnode 460 may be located at an nth mesh cluster 470 n. The dual node 460may then be configured to establish mesh wireless backhaul connectionsto each of the first secondary mesh node 465 a in the first mesh cluster470 a, second secondary mesh node 465 b of the second mesh cluster, andthe third secondary mesh node of the third mesh cluster. Each of thesecondary mesh network nodes 465 a-465 c may respectively support one ormore tertiary CPE nodes associated with subsequent customers in therespective mesh clusters 470 a-470 n. Similarly, the dual node 460 mayalso be configured to support one or more tertiary nodes associated withsubsequent customers of the respective mesh cluster of the dual node460.

FIG. 4C is a schematic diagram of a full deployment of thepoint-to-point network infrastructure in system 400C, wherein service isprovisioned to at least one respective subscriber in each “supercluster,” in accordance with various embodiments. In a fully deployedconfiguration, dual nodes may be present in each super cluster of theservice area. For example, the system 400C may include dual nodes ateach super cluster of the service area, including dual nodes 405, 445,and 460. Each dual node may further be coupled to secondary mesh nodesin each of the mesh clusters of the respective super clusters. Thus,each dual node 405, 445, 460 may be coupled to the fiber injection node430 via a point-to-point wireless connection. Each dual node, in turn,may be coupled to one or more secondary mesh nodes, including secondarymesh nodes 410 a-410 b, 450 a-450 c, 465 a-465 c, via mesh wirelessbackhaul connections. Each of the secondary mesh nodes and dual nodesmay further be configured to support one or more tertiary nodes (notshown) via respective CPE mesh network connections.

In this way, each mesh cluster may be capable of supporting respectivesubsequent clusters through respective secondary mesh nodes. Each dualnode may, in turn, support each respective super cluster by providing apoint-to-point wireless backhaul connection to the fiber injection node430. In turn, the fiber injection node 430 may be configured to couplecustomers in the service area to the network 440.

FIG. 4D is a schematic diagram of optional transitioning of thepoint-to-point wireless deployment to a self-sufficient mesh networksystem 400D, in accordance with various embodiments. In variousembodiments, the mesh network system 400D may include one or more meshwireless backhaul connections to a host mesh network radio 435 at a hostmesh network node (not shown) in addition or instead of the fiberinjection node 430.

In various embodiments, one or more mesh wireless backhaul connectionsmay be established to the host mesh network radio 435. For example, insome embodiments, one or more dual nodes may be configured to establishrespective wireless backhaul connections to other mesh network nodes,such as other dual nodes and secondary mesh nodes. Similarly, in variousembodiments, one or more secondary mesh nodes may be configured toestablish respective wireless backhaul connections to other mesh networknodes, such as other secondary mesh nodes and dual nodes. Accordingly,in some embodiments, dual nodes and secondary mesh nodes may beconfigured to establish one or more mesh network paths back to the hostmesh network radio 435. In some embodiments, utilizing network pathingtechniques known to those in the art, mesh network paths may beestablished in an automated, self-organizing manner.

For example, in various embodiments, a first secondary mesh node 410 aof the mesh cluster 420 a may be coupled to the dual node 405.Similarly, the second secondary mesh node 410 b may also be coupled tothe dual node 405. The dual node 405 of mesh cluster 420 b, in turn, maybe coupled to the dual node 445, which in turn may be coupled to thedual node 470. The dual node 470, in turn, may be coupled to the hostmesh network radio 435. The dual node 470, accordingly, may also bereferred to as a primary mesh node, which may be directly coupled to thehost mesh network radio 435. Thus, in some embodiments, mesh networkpaths may be established based on, for example, a physical proximity tothe nearest mesh network node. In further embodiments, factors such asquality of service (QoS), and other performance metrics may be utilizedto determine an optimal network path to the host mesh network radio 435.Accordingly, dual node 475 may further be coupled to the host meshnetwork radio 435, which may in turn be coupled to the dual node 460 ofan adjacent super cluster. Dual node 460 may, in turn, be coupled todual nodes of two neighboring super clusters. In yet furtherembodiments, the primary mesh node may be a secondary mesh node. Forexample, secondary mesh node 480 may be physically closest to the hostmesh network radio 435. Thus, the secondary mesh node 480 may providethe best quality connection to the host mesh network radio 435. In someembodiments, the secondary mesh node 480 may therefore act as a primarymesh node to the host mesh network radio 435. The secondary mesh node480 may be coupled, accordingly, to one or more other secondary meshnodes and/or dual nodes.

Thus, once a critical mass of customers has been provisioned in a givenservice area, the fiber injection node 430 may be removed and relocatedto a new service area. The host mesh network node may, in turn, providenetwork 440 access to the service area, via the one or more meshwireless backhaul connections. The host mesh node may be installed orotherwise provided by an internet service provider when critical masshas been reached, or in anticipation of critical mass being reached fora given service area. The host mesh network radio 435 of the host meshnode, accordingly, may be configured to couple each of the primary meshnodes to the network 440 via an optical transceiver. Thus, once acritical mass of subscribers has been reached, each of the primary meshnodes (including dual node), secondary mesh nodes, and tertiary CPEnodes may comprise, without limitation, a self-organizing mesh wirelessnetwork configured to establish one or more mesh wireless backhaulconnection via the host mesh network radio 435.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of a method 500 for point-to-point mesh networkdeployment, in accordance with various embodiments. The method 500begins, at optional block 505, by receiving a request to provisionservice. In some embodiments, the request to provision service may bereceived, for example, via a service provider's service provisioningsystems, such as one or more of a customer management system,provisioning servers, and/or authentication and authorization systems.

Once the request has been received, at decision block 510, it may bedetermined whether the customer requesting service is the first customerin a super cluster. In various embodiments, a customer managementsystem, for example, may be configured to determine whether the customerrequesting service is the first customer of the super cluster. Thecustomer management system may include a customer database, comprisingone or more entries indicative of customers in a service area, andcorresponding super cluster and/or mesh cluster. Customers may bedetermined to belong to a super cluster and respective mesh clusterbased on various types of location information, including, withoutlimitation, street addresses, physical addresses, and/or geographiclocation (e.g., geographic coordinates, physical location, etc.).

If it is determined that the customer requesting service is the firstcustomer in a respective super cluster, the method 500 continues, atblock 515, by providing a dual node at the requesting customer'scustomer premises. In various embodiments, the dual node, as previouslydescribed, may include a point-to-point wireless transceiver and a meshwireless transceiver. At block 520, the dual node may, therefore,establish a point-to-point wireless connection to a fiber injectionnode. As previously described, the fiber injection node may,accordingly, also include a point-to-point wireless transceiver. Invarious embodiments, the point-to-point wireless connection may be awireless backhaul connection to the fiber injection node.

If it is determined that the customer requesting service is not thefirst customer in a respective super cluster, the method 500 continuesat decision block 525, by determining whether the customer requestingservice is the first customer in a respective mesh cluster. If it isdetermined that the customer requesting service is the first customer inthe respective mesh cluster, the method 500 may continue, at block 530,by providing a secondary mesh node at a customer premises associatedwith the requesting customer. If it is determined that the customerrequesting service is not the first customer in the respective meshcluster, the method 500 may continue, at block 535, by providing atertiary CPE node at the respective customer premises. As previouslydescribed, the tertiary CPE node may include any suitable mesh networknode configured to establish a mesh network connection (e.g., a wirelessrouter, wireless access point, etc.) as known to those in the art.

The method may continue, at block 540, by provisioning access to theservice provider network. For example, for the dual node, access to theservice provider network may be provisioned directly via thepoint-to-point wireless connection. For the secondary mesh node, aspreviously described, the dual node may be configured to establish amesh wireless backhaul connection to the secondary mesh node. Eachtertiary node may, in turn, be coupled to the service provider networkand provisioned with access to the service provider network via a CPEmesh link to the secondary mesh node, which may in turn be coupled tothe dual node, which is in turn coupled to the fiber injection node, viawhich the service area is coupled to the service provider network.

At block 545, the method 500 continues, by establishing a meshconnection. The mesh connection may include, for example, a meshconnection from the dual node to one or more secondary mesh nodes, andbetween each of the one or more secondary mesh nodes and a respectiveset of one or more tertiary CPE nodes. In various embodiments, the meshconnection between the dual node and the secondary mesh node may includea mesh wireless backhaul connection over which the tertiary CPE nodesmay communicate with the service provider network. In yet furtherembodiments, as previously described, the mesh connection may includeone or more respective point-to-point connections in apoint-to-multipoint configuration. Thus, mesh connections may includerespective point-to-point connections between each of the secondary meshnodes, dual nodes, and tertiary CPE nodes.

At decision block 550, the method may continue by determining whether acritical mass of customers has been reached. As previously described, acritical mass may be reached when a self-sustaining mesh network hasbeen created between the dual nodes, secondary nodes, and tertiary nodesof a service area. Thus, when a critical mass has been reached, themethod 500 may continue by establishing a mesh wireless backhaulconnection to a host mesh node in communication with the serviceprovider network. In various embodiments, the host mesh node may includea host mesh radio transceiver in communication with one or more primarymesh nodes. The primary mesh nodes may include mesh nodes directlycoupled to the host mesh node. Primary mesh nodes may include, withoutlimitation, one or more dual nodes, one or more secondary mesh nodes,and/or, in some examples, one or more tertiary CPE nodes.

The method 500 may further continue, at block 560, by disconnecting thepoint-to-point wireless connection. As previously described, in variousembodiments, the fiber injection node and point-to-point wirelesstransceiver of the fiber injection node may be removed and installed ata new location to service a new service area, and the existing servicearea may rely on the self-sufficient mesh network for connectivity tothe service provider network.

FIG. 6 is a schematic block diagram of a computer system 600 forpoint-to-point mesh network deployment, in accordance with variousembodiments. FIG. 6 provides a schematic illustration of one embodimentof a computer system 600, such as a fiber injection node, dual node,host mesh node, any of the one or more associated transceivers and/orcontrollers, which may perform the methods provided by various otherembodiments, as described herein. It should be noted that FIG. 6 onlyprovides a generalized illustration of various components, of which oneor more of each may be utilized as appropriate. FIG. 6, therefore,broadly illustrates how individual system elements may be implemented ina relatively separated or relatively more integrated manner.

The computer system 600 includes multiple hardware elements that may beelectrically coupled via a bus 605 (or may otherwise be incommunication, as appropriate). The hardware elements may include one ormore processors 610, including, without limitation, one or moregeneral-purpose processors and/or one or more special-purpose processors(such as microprocessors, digital signal processing chips, graphicsacceleration processors, and microcontrollers); one or more inputdevices 615, which include, without limitation, a mouse, a keyboard, oneor more sensors, and/or the like; and one or more output devices 620,which can include, without limitation, a display device, and/or thelike.

The computer system 600 may further include (and/or be in communicationwith) one or more storage devices 625, which can comprise, withoutlimitation, local and/or network accessible storage, and/or can include,without limitation, a disk drive, a drive array, an optical storagedevice, solid-state storage device such as a random-access memory(“RAM”) and/or a read-only memory (“ROM”), which can be programmable,flash-updateable, and/or the like. Such storage devices may beconfigured to implement any appropriate data stores, including, withoutlimitation, various file systems, database structures, and/or the like.

The computer system 600 might also include a communications subsystem630, which may include, without limitation, a modem, a network card(wireless or wired), an IR communication device, a wirelesscommunication device and/or chip set (such as a Bluetooth™ device, an802.11 device, a WiFi device, a WiMax device, a WWAN device, a Z-Wavedevice, a ZigBee device, cellular communication facilities, etc.),and/or a LP wireless device as previously described. The communicationssubsystem 630 may permit data to be exchanged with a network (such asthe network described below, to name one example), with other computeror hardware systems, between data centers or different cloud platforms,and/or with any other devices described herein. In many embodiments, thecomputer system 600 further comprises a working memory 635, which caninclude a RAM or ROM device, as described above.

The computer system 600 also may comprise software elements, shown asbeing currently located within the working memory 635, including anoperating system 640, device drivers, executable libraries, and/or othercode, such as one or more application programs 645, which may comprisecomputer programs provided by various embodiments (including, withoutlimitation, various applications running on the various server, LPwireless device, control units, and various secure devices as describedabove), and/or may be designed to implement methods, and/or configuresystems, provided by other embodiments, as described herein. Merely byway of example, one or more procedures described with respect to themethod(s) discussed above might be implemented as code and/orinstructions executable by a computer (and/or a processor within acomputer); in an aspect, then, such code and/or instructions can be usedto configure and/or adapt a general purpose computer (or other device)to perform one or more operations in accordance with the describedmethods.

A set of these instructions and/or code might be encoded and/or storedon a non-transitory computer readable storage medium, such as thestorage device(s) 625 described above. In some cases, the storage mediummight be incorporated within a computer system, such as the system 600.In other embodiments, the storage medium might be separate from acomputer system (i.e., a removable medium, such as a compact disc,etc.), and/or provided in an installation package, such that the storagemedium can be used to program, configure, and/or adapt a general purposecomputer with the instructions/code stored thereon. These instructionsmight take the form of executable code, which is executable by thecomputer system 600 and/or might take the form of source and/orinstallable code, which, upon compilation and/or installation on thecomputer system 600 (e.g., using any of a variety of generally availablecompilers, installation programs, compression/decompression utilities,etc.) then takes the form of executable code.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that substantialvariations may be made in accordance with specific requirements. Forexample, customized hardware (such as programmable logic controllers,single board computers, FPGAs, ASICs, and SoCs) might also be used,and/or particular elements might be implemented in hardware, software(including portable software, such as applets, etc.), or both. Further,connection to other computing devices such as network input/outputdevices may be employed.

As mentioned above, in one aspect, some embodiments may employ acomputer or hardware system (such as the computer system 600) to performmethods in accordance with various embodiments of the invention.According to a set of embodiments, some or all of the procedures of suchmethods are performed by the computer system 600 in response toprocessor 610 executing one or more sequences of one or moreinstructions (which might be incorporated into the operating system 640and/or other code, such as an application program 645) contained in theworking memory 635. Such instructions may be read into the workingmemory 635 from another computer readable medium, such as one or more ofthe storage device(s) 625. Merely by way of example, execution of thesequences of instructions contained in the working memory 635 mightcause the processor(s) 610 to perform one or more procedures of themethods described herein.

The terms “machine readable medium” and “computer readable medium,” asused herein, refer to any medium that participates in providing datathat causes a machine to operate in a specific fashion. In an embodimentimplemented using the computer system 600, various computer readablemedia might be involved in providing instructions/code to processor(s)610 for execution and/or might be used to store and/or carry suchinstructions/code (e.g., as signals). In many implementations, acomputer readable medium is a non-transitory, physical, and/or tangiblestorage medium. In some embodiments, a computer readable medium may takemany forms, including, but not limited to, non-volatile media, volatilemedia, or the like. Non-volatile media includes, for example, opticaland/or magnetic disks, such as the storage device(s) 625. Volatile mediaincludes, without limitation, dynamic memory, such as the working memory635. In some alternative embodiments, a computer readable medium maytake the form of transmission media, which includes, without limitation,coaxial cables, copper wire and fiber optics, including the wires thatcomprise the bus 605, as well as the various components of thecommunication subsystem 630 (and/or the media by which thecommunications subsystem 630 provides communication with other devices).In an alternative set of embodiments, transmission media can also takethe form of waves (including, without limitation, radio, acoustic,and/or light waves, such as those generated during radio-wave andinfra-red data communications).

Common forms of physical and/or tangible computer readable mediainclude, for example, a floppy disk, a flexible disk, a hard disk,magnetic tape, or any other magnetic medium, a CD-ROM, any other opticalmedium, punch cards, paper tape, any other physical medium with patternsof holes, a RAM, a PROM, and EPROM, a FLASH-EPROM, any other memory chipor cartridge, a carrier wave as described hereinafter, or any othermedium from which a computer can read instructions and/or code.

Various forms of computer readable media may be involved in carrying oneor more sequences of one or more instructions to the processor(s) 610for execution. Merely by way of example, the instructions may initiallybe carried on a magnetic disk and/or optical disc of a remote computer.A remote computer might load the instructions into its dynamic memoryand send the instructions as signals over a transmission medium to bereceived and/or executed by the computer system 600. These signals,which might be in the form of electromagnetic signals, acoustic signals,optical signals, and/or the like, are all examples of carrier waves onwhich instructions can be encoded, in accordance with variousembodiments of the invention.

The communications subsystem 630 (and/or components thereof) generallyreceives the signals, and the bus 605 then might carry the signals(and/or the data, instructions, etc. carried by the signals) to theworking memory 635, from which the processor(s) 610 retrieves andexecutes the instructions. The instructions received by the workingmemory 635 may optionally be stored on a storage device 625 eitherbefore or after execution by the processor(s) 610.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating a networked system of computingsystems, which may be used in accordance with various embodiments. Thesystem 700 may include one or more user devices 705. A user device 705may include, merely by way of example, desktop computers, single-boardcomputers, tablet computers, laptop computers, handheld computers, andthe like, running an appropriate operating system, which in variousembodiments may include various CPE, dual nodes, secondary mesh nodes,and/or tertiary CPE nodes as previously described. User devices 705 mayfurther include external devices, remote devices, servers, and/orworkstation computers running any of a variety of operating systems. Insome embodiments, the operating systems may includecommercially-available UNIX™ or UNIX-like operating systems. A userdevice 705 may also have any of a variety of applications, including oneor more applications configured to perform methods provided by variousembodiments, as well as one or more office applications, database clientand/or server applications, and/or web browser applications.Alternatively, a user device 705 may include any other electronicdevice, such as a thin-client computer, Internet-enabled mobiletelephone, and/or personal digital assistant, capable of communicatingvia a network (e.g., the network(s) 710 described below) and/or ofdisplaying and navigating web pages or other types of electronicdocuments. Although the exemplary system 700 is shown with two userdevices 705, any number of user devices 705 may be supported.

Certain embodiments operate in a networked environment, which caninclude a network(s) 710. The network(s) 710 can be any type of networkfamiliar to those skilled in the art that can support datacommunications using any of a variety of commercially-available (and/orfree or proprietary) protocols, including, without limitation, MQTT,CoAP, AMQP, STOMP, DDS, SCADA, XMPP, custom middleware agents, Modbus,BACnet, NCTIP 1213, Bluetooth, Zigbee/Z-wave, TCP/IP, SNA™ IPX™,AppleTalk™, and the like. Merely by way of example, the network(s) 710can each include a local area network (“LAN”), including, withoutlimitation, a fiber network, an Ethernet network, a Token-Ring™ networkand/or the like; a wide-area network (“WAN”); a wireless wide areanetwork (“WWAN”); a virtual network, such as a virtual private network(“VPN”); the Internet; an intranet; an extranet; a public switchedtelephone network (“PSTN”); an infra-red network; a wireless network,including, without limitation, a network operating under any of the IEEE802.11 suite of protocols, the Bluetooth™ protocol known in the art,and/or any other wireless protocol; and/or any combination of theseand/or other networks. In a particular embodiment, the network mightinclude an access network of the service provider (e.g., an Internetservice provider (“ISP”)). In another embodiment, the network mightinclude a core network of the service provider, management network,and/or the Internet.

Embodiments can also include one or more server computers 715. Each ofthe server computers 715 may be configured with an operating system,including, without limitation, any of those discussed above, as well asany commercially (or freely) available server operating systems. Each ofthe servers 715 may also be running one or more applications, which canbe configured to provide services to one or more clients 705 and/orother servers 715.

Merely by way of example, one of the servers 715 might be a data server,a web server, a cloud computing device(s), or the like, as describedabove. The data server might include (or be in communication with) a webserver, which can be used, merely by way of example, to process requestsfor web pages or other electronic documents from user computers 705. Theweb server can also run a variety of server applications, including HTTPservers, FTP servers, CGI servers, database servers, Java servers, andthe like. In some embodiments of the invention, the web server may beconfigured to serve web pages that can be operated within a web browseron one or more of the user computers 705 to perform methods of theinvention.

The server computers 715, in some embodiments, might include one or moreapplication servers, which can be configured with one or moreapplications, programs, web-based services, or other network resourcesaccessible by a client. Merely by way of example, the server(s) 715 canbe one or more general purpose computers capable of executing programsor scripts in response to the user computers 705 and/or other servers715, including, without limitation, web applications (which might, insome cases, be configured to perform methods provided by variousembodiments). Merely by way of example, a web application can beimplemented as one or more scripts or programs written in any suitableprogramming language, such as Java™, C, C#™ or C++, and/or any scriptinglanguage, such as Perl, Python, or TCL, as well as combinations of anyprogramming and/or scripting languages. The application server(s) canalso include database servers, including, without limitation, thosecommercially available from Oracle™, Microsoft™, Sybase™, IBM™, and thelike, which can process requests from clients (including, depending onthe configuration, dedicated database clients, API clients, webbrowsers, etc.) running on a user computer, user device, or customerdevice 705 and/or another server 715. In some embodiments, anapplication server can perform one or more of the processes forimplementing media content streaming or playback, and, moreparticularly, to methods, systems, and apparatuses for implementingvideo tuning and wireless video communication using a single device inwhich these functionalities are integrated, as described in detailabove. Data provided by an application server may be formatted as one ormore web pages (comprising HTML, JavaScript, etc., for example) and/ormay be forwarded to a user computer 705 via a web server (as describedabove, for example). Similarly, a web server might receive web pagerequests and/or input data from a user computer 705 and/or forward theweb page requests and/or input data to an application server. In somecases, a web server may be integrated with an application server.

In accordance with further embodiments, one or more servers 715 canfunction as a file server and/or can include one or more of the files(e.g., application code, data files, etc.) necessary to implementvarious disclosed methods, incorporated by an application running on auser computer 705 and/or another server 715. Alternatively, as thoseskilled in the art will appreciate, a file server can include allnecessary files, allowing such an application to be invoked remotely bya user computer, user device, or customer device 705 and/or server 715.

It should be noted that the functions described with respect to variousservers herein (e.g., application server, database server, web server,file server, etc.) can be performed by a single server and/or aplurality of specialized servers, depending on implementation-specificneeds and parameters.

In certain embodiments, the system can include one or more databases 720a-720 n (collectively, “databases 720”). The location of each of thedatabases 720 is discretionary: merely by way of example, a database 720a might reside on a storage medium local to (and/or resident in) aserver 715 a (or alternatively, user device 705). Alternatively, adatabase 720 n can be remote from any or all of the computers of system700 so long as it can be in communication (e.g., via the network 710)with one or more of these. In a particular set of embodiments, adatabase 720 can reside in a storage-area network (“SAN”) familiar tothose skilled in the art. (Likewise, any necessary files for performingthe functions attributed to the computers of the system 700 can bestored locally on the respective computer and/or remotely, asappropriate.) In one set of embodiments, the database 720 may be arelational database configured to host one or more data lakes collectedfrom various data sources, such as the managed object 725, user devices705, or other sources. Relational databases may include, for example, anOracle database, that is adapted to store, update, and retrieve data inresponse to SQL-formatted commands. The database might be controlledand/or maintained by a database server.

The system 700 may further include a dual node 725, secondary mesh node730, fiber injection node 735, and host mesh node 740. Each of the fiberinjection node 735 and host mesh node 740 may be coupled to the network710. The dual node 725 may be coupled to the fiber injection node 735via a point-to-point wireless connection as previously described. Thepoint-to-point wireless connection may, in various embodiments, be awireless backhaul connection configured to transmit traffic from one ormore secondary mesh nodes 730, and one or more tertiary CPE nodes (notshown) coupled to the dual node 725 and/or respective secondary meshnodes 730. Accordingly, the dual node 725 may further be configured toestablish a mesh wireless connection to each of the one or moresecondary mesh nodes 730 and any tertiary CPE nodes, as previouslydescribed.

In various embodiments, once a critical mass of customers have beenprovisioned in a service area, the dual node 725 may be configured toestablish a mesh wireless backhaul connection to the host mesh node 740.As previously described, in some embodiments, the mesh wireless backhaulconnection may be established, alternatively, via one or more secondarymesh nodes 730 and/or tertiary CPE nodes (not shown). In someembodiments, the point-to-point wireless connection between the dualnode 725 and fiber injection node 735 may be disconnected and the fiberinjection node 735 may be removed and reinstalled at a different servicearea.

While certain features and aspects have been described with respect toexemplary embodiments, one skilled in the art will recognize thatnumerous modifications are possible. For example, the methods andprocesses described herein may be implemented using hardware components,software components, and/or any combination thereof. Further, whilevarious methods and processes described herein may be described withrespect to certain structural and/or functional components for ease ofdescription, methods provided by various embodiments are not limited toany single structural and/or functional architecture but instead can beimplemented on any suitable hardware, firmware and/or softwareconfiguration. Similarly, while certain functionality is ascribed tocertain system components, unless the context dictates otherwise, thisfunctionality can be distributed among various other system componentsin accordance with the several embodiments.

Moreover, while the procedures of the methods and processes describedherein are described in sequentially for ease of description, unless thecontext dictates otherwise, various procedures may be reordered, added,and/or omitted in accordance with various embodiments. Moreover, theprocedures described with respect to one method or process may beincorporated within other described methods or processes; likewise,system components described according to a specific structuralarchitecture and/or with respect to one system may be organized inalternative structural architectures and/or incorporated within otherdescribed systems. Hence, while various embodiments are describedwith—or without—certain features for ease of description and toillustrate exemplary aspects of those embodiments, the variouscomponents and/or features described herein with respect to oneembodiment can be substituted, added and/or subtracted from among otherdescribed embodiments, unless the context dictates otherwise.Consequently, although several exemplary embodiments are describedabove, it will be appreciated that the invention is intended to coverall modifications and equivalents within the scope of the followingclaims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system comprising: an aggregation nodecomprising a host wireless transceiver, wherein the aggregation node iscoupled to a service provider network; a first node associated with afirst customer premises, the first node comprising: a remote wirelesstransceiver in communication with the host wireless transceiver; aprocessor; and non-transitory computer readable media comprisinginstructions executable by the processor to: establish, via a first meshnetwork node transceiver, a mesh connection to a secondary mesh networknode associated with a second customer premises; provision, via the meshconnection, access to the service provider network to the secondcustomer premises; receive, via the mesh connection, a first data fromthe second customer premises; and transmit, via a point-to-pointwireless connection, the first data from the second customer premises tothe service provider network.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein theinstructions are further executable by the processor to: receive, viathe point-to-point wireless connection, a second data from the serviceprovider network; and transmit, via the mesh connection, the second datafrom the service provider network to the second customer premises. 3.The system of claim 1, wherein the system further comprises a host meshradio, the host mesh radio is coupled to the service provider network,wherein the instructions are further executable by the processor to:establish, via the first mesh network node transceiver, a backhaulconnection to the host mesh radio; and provision, via the backhaulconnection, access to the service provider network.
 4. The system ofclaim 3, wherein the instructions are further executable by theprocessor to: disconnect, via the remote wireless transceiver, thepoint-to-point wireless connection in response to the backhaulconnection being established.
 5. The system of claim 3, wherein theinstructions are further executable by the processor to: conduct, viathe backhaul connection, one or more communications associated with thesecond customer premises over the backhaul connection.
 6. The system ofclaim 3, wherein the instructions are further executable by theprocessor to: establish, via the first mesh network node transceiver, anew subscriber connection to a new subscriber premises, wherein the newsubscriber connection is one of a second mesh connection, or aconnection established through the mesh connection to a second meshnetwork node; and provision, via the backhaul connection, access to theservice provider network to the new subscriber, wherein communicationwith the new subscriber is carried over the new subscriber connection.7. The system of claim 3, wherein the host mesh radio is coupled to theservice provider network via a fiber optic line.
 8. The system of claim1, wherein the point-to-point wireless connection is a millimeter wavewireless connection.
 9. The system of claim 1, wherein the aggregationnode is coupled to the service provider network via a fiber optic line.10. An apparatus comprising: a remote wireless transceiver; a meshnetwork node transceiver; a processor; and non-transitory computerreadable media comprising instructions executable by the processor to:establish, via the mesh network node transceiver, a mesh connection to amesh network node associated with a customer premises; provision, viathe mesh connection, access to a service provider network to thecustomer premises; receive, via the mesh connection, a first data fromthe customer premises; and transmit, via a point-to-point wirelessconnection, the first data from the customer premises to the serviceprovider network.
 11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein theinstructions are further executable by the processor to: receive, viathe point-to-point wireless connection, a second data from the serviceprovider network; and transmit, via the mesh connection, the second datafrom the service provider network to the second customer premises. 12.The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the instructions are furtherexecutable by the processor to: establish, via the mesh network nodetransceiver, a backhaul connection to a host mesh radio in communicationwith the service provider network; and provision, via the backhaulconnection, access to the service provider network.
 13. The apparatus ofclaim 12, wherein the instructions are further executable by theprocessor to: disconnect, via the remote wireless transceiver, thepoint-to-point wireless connection in response to the backhaulconnection being established.
 14. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein theinstructions are further executable by the processor to: conduct, viathe backhaul connection, one or more communications associated with thesecond customer premises over the backhaul connection.
 15. The apparatusof claim 12, wherein the instructions are further executable by theprocessor to: establish, via the first mesh network node transceiver, anew subscriber connection to a new subscriber premises, wherein the newsubscriber connection is one of a second mesh connection, or aconnection established through the mesh connection to a second meshnetwork node; and provision, via the backhaul connection, access to theservice provider network to the new subscriber, wherein communicationwith the new subscriber is carried over the new subscriber connection.16. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the point-to-point wirelessconnection is a millimeter wave wireless connection.
 17. A methodcomprising: establishing, via a first mesh network node transceiver, amesh connection to a secondary mesh network node associated with acustomer premises; provisioning, via the mesh connection, access to aservice provider network to the customer premises; receiving, via themesh connection, a first data from the customer premises; andtransmitting, via a point-to-point wireless connection, the first datafrom the customer premises to the service provider network.
 18. Themethod of claim 17 further comprising: receiving, via the point-to-pointwireless connection, a second data from the service provider network;and transmitting, via the mesh connection, the second data from theservice provider network to the second customer premises.
 19. The methodof claim 17 further comprising: establishing, via the first mesh networknode transceiver, a backhaul connection to a host mesh radio incommunication with the service provider network; provisioning, via thebackhaul connection, access to the service provider network; anddisconnecting, via a remote wireless transceiver, the point-to-pointwireless connection in response to the backhaul connection beingestablished.
 20. The method of claim 19 further comprising:establishing, via the first mesh network node transceiver, a newsubscriber connection to a new subscriber premises, wherein the newsubscriber connection is one of a second mesh connection, or aconnection established through the mesh connection to the second meshnetwork node; and provisioning, via the backhaul connection, access tothe service provider network to the new subscriber, whereincommunication with the new subscriber is carried over the new subscriberconnection.